Wednesday, September 05, 2012

Lessons about Change for Mr. President from Isaac Newton

Are the times a changin? Chilling is the idea that if Mr. Obama had no active resistance and was able to shift things at will we in America and world wide would still be up the proverbial creek without a paddle. Until we common folk see the game for what it is and decide to exercise our will and grasp the power we have, morally, economically and politically; grasp the empowerment at our fingertips things will not significantly change.

For example, economically why anyone who is not rich would side with "trickle-down" economics is beyond me maybe someone can school me here. It doesn't trickle down and do what it theoretically is supposed to folks. The Reagan success wasn't necessarily a success. I would even venture to question why many of the rich would think this is a good long range idea. I guess the cynical answer to the question how much is enough is the reason.

If trickle-down economics worked [during the Reagan Administration], then lower tax rates during the Reagan
Revolution should have increased the lowest income levels. In fact, the
exact opposite has occurred. Income inequality
has worsened. Between 1979 and 2005, after-tax household income rose 6%
for the bottom fifth of income earners. That sounds great, until you
see what happened for the top fifth -- an 80% increase in income. The
top 1% saw their income triple. Instead trickling down, it appears that
prosperity trickled up! (Source: Steven Greenhouse, The Big Squeeze, pp.6-9)

Much of our public and economic policy is driven by two things. Firstly is the idea that you too can be rich and in the upper echelon, the top 5 to 1 percent and secondly is the idea that we don't want anyone getting anything handed to them. "Why should I work my fingers to the bone and the "Blank" family get paid sitting at home watching All In The Family reruns?They both lead to misguided public policy based on myth perpetrated by our American roots individualistic personality."Come gather 'round people Wherever you roamAnd admit that the waters Around you have grownAnd accept it that soon You'll be drenched to the boneIf your time to you Is worth savin' Then you better start swimmin'Or you'll sink like a stone For the times they are a-changin'

In which direction do we see change going?

"The researchers at Pew Social & Demographic Trends aren't holding
back in their new report on the middle class. It calls the last 11
years, "the lost decade" for the country's middle class.The highlight from the report issued today is that the middle class is poorer, earning less and shrinking."-The Two-Way, NPR news blog, Sept. 5th 2012

Many people who voted for Mr. Obama have voiced disappointment in the amount of change his administration hasn't enacted. Perhaps many of these folks are single issue voters, perhaps they are unaware of the significant changes he has attempted to enact. Many of us know his changes aren't new but what is new is that he has brought the power of the presidency to bear on issues many have been trying to change since before Mr. Obama was born. Some may be unaware of what change he managed to enact and perhaps they were absent the day guest lecturer Isaac Newton taught PoliSci 101. Attention class!

·A SPODTOTOM [which is] in motion continues moving in a straight line at constant velocity until acted upon by a force.

Also called "Law of Inertia"

Accelerated motion

Newton's Second Law:

F = ma

Acceleration of a SPODTOTOM is directly proportional to the net force acting on the SPODTOTOM and inversely proportional to its mass.Translation: the more force you apply to a, SPODTOTOM over time the quicker the SPODTOTOM will move or change direction.The denser the SPODTOTOM the slower the change.

Newton's Third Law:

Whenever New Ideas, Situations, Policies, Objects, Trains Of Thought, etc., exerts a force on a SPODTOTOM, the SPODTOTOM attempts to exert at least an equal and opposite force on the first in an attempt to eliminate it and continue the status quo.

The Times They Are A Changin- Bruce Sringsteen:

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.

Your Host

Cavana Faithwalker was born in Cleveland, Ohio. Much of his
worldview and values have been molded by his Blackness bestowed upon him in a
working class Black, urban neighborhood. He blames his packrat tendencies, the
economy in his art and poetry on being raised by an Alabama, depression baby
momma who was raised on a farm with her nine brothers and sisters. "She is
probably the reason I fight consumerism gone amuck and the overly me-ish
influence of our society," says Cavana.

His fascination with mechanical things, physics, his aesthetics,
his sense of humor and how things relate to each other comes from construction
worker dad and others.

He has a degree in public art marketing and management from
Cleveland State University. His major is composed of Urban Studies, Studio Art and Marketing.

He says his “new best friend” now is Amit Goswami a quantum
physicist turned spiritual guru and quantum activist. " I
think something is happening worldwide as far as spiritual consciousness.
For me after almost a quarter century of mainstream and somewhat
fundamentalist Christian dogma and orthodoxy, that whole thing is giving in to a new interpretation of what
the canon says and also what is myth and what is ‘reality.’

When it comes to orthodoxy and dogma I
rather like an adage attributed to Zen Buddhism, ‘when you meet the Buddha in
the road, kill the Buddha.’"

Cavana believes in congruency. “The more you can be in sync with your
authentic self the healthier you are and the more life you bring to the things
you do, yeah congruency.” He aims
at being content in life and enjoying life. His mantra is breathe in breathe out. “Through meditating when I play my didgeridoo
I may have zeroed in on the one thing that won’t change in my world view, it
may be the constancy that anchors me, the lessons in science, those
metaphysical concepts beyond the science of plant animal relationships
surrounding oxygen are powerful. A natural outcome of this mantra is thinking
win-win, big picture, and yin yang.

Perhaps when you gravitate to something or are in accord with something it was meant to be that revelations come through it.I learned to play the didjeridoo in 30 minutes, ‘circular’ breathing and how to make sounds.Many play along time without learning ‘circular breathing’ but it just seemed like the thing to do."

Cavana is a visual and performance artists, he sings and plays
didjeridu and is aiming at attaining some level of expertise at throat singing
also know as overtone singing.

Cavana was the Poet Laureate for the City of Cleveland Heights,
Ohio from 2011-2013.

"Muhammed Ali got me into poetry with his prose and antics in the
70s," Faithwalker says. "I would write prose poetry and recite
them for fellow students in high school." He won his first poetry
contest while in high school.

Today Cavana puts himself in the activist 'box'. "A lot of folks don't like labels but we are hardwired to label and pre judge. I read this sign that said activism is the rent for living on this planet, or something like that. I like that but even more so we are all activists if we become aware and congruent. We naturally care, compassion, and get involved and wear off on those that have been beat up too much to care and get involved - empowerment. When we get too beat up someone re empowers us. Romantic view I know and I try to live into it.